Le Pen seeks to rally far-right allies for European elections

Polish leader of political party KNP Michal Marusik (2-L), Czech leader of far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party Tomio Okamura (3-L), French General secretary of the far-right Front National (FN) party Nicolas Bay (4-L) and French far-right political party National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen (5-R) and Bulgaria's Volya leader Vesselin Mareshli (4-R) attend the 'Nations Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom' (MENL) rally in Nice, southern France, 1 May 2018. [Sebastien Nogier/EPA/EFE]

France’s Marine Le Pen led a rally of Europe’s far-right in the southern French city of Nice on Tuesday (1 May), to celebrate recent gains on the continent and devise a battle plan for next year’s European elections.

The National Front leader is hoping to bounce back from her defeat in last year’s presidential vote in the May 2018 elections to the European Parliament.

But there were key absences from the Nice meeting of parties from the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) grouping, revealing cracks in Le Pen’s bid to create a grand alliance of Europe’s far right.

“Europe is a good idea but the European Union is killing it,” Le Pen told the rally on May Day, which was attended by the secretary general of Austria’s far-right FPÖ, Harald Vilimsky, whose party entered government in December.

“The possibility of obtaining a majority to change Europe is not so far-fetched. It’s up to us to build this historic victory,” she urged.

After setbacks in France and the Netherlands in the first half of 2017 eurosceptic parties have chalked up major gains in several countries around Europe.

In Germany, the anti-immigration AfD in Germany garnered almost 13% of the vote in September’s election; in Hungary, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was re-elected to a third term with a thumping majority last month; and in Italy, the eurosceptic League party is vying to form a government. Although ideologically close to the far right, Orbán is officially affiliated to the centre-right EPP.

League leader Matteo Salvini did not attend Tuesday’s rally but sent a video message of support instead.

Bulgaria’s Volya party is led by businessman Vesselin Mareshki, sometimes called the ‘Bulgarian Trump’. Mareshki owns a chain of petrol stations and pharmacies and succeeds in selling fuel and medicines at prices well below the rest of the competition. Mareshki positions himself as oppositions, but in fact supports the Borissov government.

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Comments

One response to “Le Pen seeks to rally far-right allies for European elections”

This promises to be fun at the next European Parliamentary elections… If I look into my crystal ball, I can see Le Penn and Victor Orban fighting to establish a dominant anti-European, nationalist/populist grouping. After Brexit, the ECR will lose the Conservatives and EFDD will lose UKIP, so both groups will be up for grabs. Le Penn is likely to want to create one group, through some kind EFDD and ENL merger. And there is a good chance that Orban will leave (or be discretely shown the door) the EPP and migrate to the ECR which will be a more likely platform for him, joining Poland’s Law and Justice. If there are only two groups, it will be interesting to see where some of the other will go, especially the Austrian Freedom Party, Italy’s Northern League and Five Star Movement, and then the new AfD MEPs. I wonder if it is worth taking any bets?

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